Sugar & Spice

Welcome to 2012!

It’s the New Year, and many of you have made your New Years’ resolutions – for better or worse.

Among the more popular resolutions, are vows to revamp our diets and exercise more.

Or cut back on sugar.

All this in addition to mastering a gluten-free lifestyle!

I admit, I was a bit ahead of the game this year. Although, I don’t put that much store in New Year’s Resolutions per se – I’m more likely to adopt new habits throughout the year, as ideas present themselves to me.

And so it was this past year, as I decided late in the year to cut back on the usual excess of sweet treats over the holidays, challenging myself to new heights.

Normally, I love to bake this time of year, taking full advantage of the holidays and the opportunity to splurge.

However, I had a different goal in mind, wanting to rid myself of the usual sugar highs that accompany the holidays and family get-togethers.

I’m not entirely new to baking with alternative sweeteners. In fact, I’ve experimented for some time already, with options such as agave, or honey.

I particularly like agave, although it has a reputation for being somewhat controversial.

What was new for me, however, was the decision to go cold turkey, so to speak, and to bake our holiday treats without any refined sugars whatsoever.

My new favorite is now Coconut Sugar, also referred to as Palm Sugar, which functions very much like regular sugar. Coconut Sugar can be substituted in any recipe cup for cup – without spiking ones’ blood sugar levels.

To be perfectly honest, I was motivated to adopt a sugar-free holiday due to two events, the first being our post-holiday plans to escape to Hawaii – for a much needed week of rest and relaxation.

However, my desire to cut back on sweets, wasn’t just limited by my travel plans.

The second fortuitous event was learning of another nutritional resource: Replenish PDX – under the guidance of its owner and founder, Andrea Nakayama.

If cutting back on unhealthy sugars in your diet is something you’ve resolved to do this year, then I would encourage you to check out this site and some of the exciting classes that are offered.

I have never met Andrea, but was intrigued by her very compelling personal story and thus signed up for Sweet Tooth, Bitter Truth – a super informative on-line course that will definitely open your eyes.

Check it out for yourself and let me know what you think.

And be prepared for an odd twist – which is that many of the sweet treats you’ve baked for years  – will suddenly tasted much too sweet to your newly refined, gluten-free taste buds.

How’s that for a sweet reward?!